POLITICS AND AESTHETICS

Konrad Paul Liessmann in conversation with Franz Schuh

POLITICS AND AESTHETICS

„The relationship between „aesthetics and politics“ is often discussed below the level of the problem. People like to take the artist's opinion for the politics of art. Some artists also sail in these waters, which can be desirable if one equates the „attitude“ of the artist with that of every citizen. But the political in art is far more complicated. It is multi-layered and cannot simply be read off a surface.
A few months ago, Konrad Paul Liessmann wrote in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung published an essay that uses a specific case to illustrate how the relationship between politics and aesthetics can be discussed in an exemplary way: ‚It is no coincidence‘, it was said in the NZZ, Prigozhin's brutal mercenary troop operated under the name of the composer Richard Wagner. They thus participated in a vulgar way in his fascist nimbus. But how do the spirit and form of Wagner's work relate to this abuse?‚
Liessmann's essay is the occasion and foundation for a conversation about the aestheticisation of politics, the political impact of which, it seems, is currently underestimated by many politicians.“ Franz Schuh

Konrad Paul Liessmann, born in Villach in 1953, is a retired professor of philosophy at the University of Vienna, essayist, literary critic and cultural journalist. He received the Austrian Book Trade Prize of Honour for Tolerance in Thought and Action in 2004, the Donauland Non-Fiction Prize in 2010 and the Paul Watzlawick Ring of Honour in 2016. He publishes the Philosophicum Lech series at Zsolnay Verlag. Most recently published by Zsolnay Geisterstunde. The practice of uneducation. Eine Streitschrift (2014), Bildung als Provokation (2017), Alle Lust will Ewigkeit. Mitternächtliche Versuchungen (2021) and Lauter Lügen (2023), as well as Der werfe den ersten Stein (2019) published by Hanser (together with Michael Köhlmeier).

Franz Schuh, born in Vienna in 1947, studied philosophy, history and German literature. He is a lecturer at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna and a columnist for magazines and radio stations. His awards include the Leipzig Book Fair Prize in 2006, the Austrian Art Prize in 2011 and the Johann Heinrich Merck Prize for Literary Criticism and Essay in 2021. His most recent publications with Zsolnay are Sämtliche Leidenschaften (2014), Fortuna. Aus dem Magazin des Glücks (2017), Lachen und Sterben (2021) and Ein Mann ohne Beschwerden (2023).

In co-operation with Zsolnay Publishing House